Celebrating 11 years!

Tomorrow will mark exactly eleven years since I launched this website and in that moment, Makino Studios was born! The website, the business, my art and the world have gone through quite a few changes since then. Deepest thanks to my customers and fans for supporting my work all these years!

To celebrate, I’m offering 20% off everything on my site for four days, through this Sunday at midnight. Use code 11YEARS at checkout. This site is only set up to ship within the US but if you live overseas, shoot me a message and we’ll work it out. Mother's Day and graduation are just around the corner!

As a sweet anniversary gift, my book, Water and Stone, recently got two more lovely reviews. An excerpt from the review in Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America: “While this book is clearly meant to showcase the haiga, I don’t want to overlook the universal appeal of her haibun, which speak directly to the reader’s heart about such topics as parenthood, being an artist, time passing, beloved pets, family history, and the natural world around us. There is so much to love and appreciate in this book, which I would also highly recommend as the perfect gift for a haiku poet to share with non-haiku-poet family and friends.”

And an excerpt from the Modern Haiku review: “This first full-length collection presents fifty haiga and fifteen autobiographical haibun by a poet whom Stephen Addiss places ‘among the leaders of haiku painting.’ . . . Love, indeed, is what seems to inspire Makino’s haiga, visually rendered in Japanese watercolors and sumi ink in an unpretentious style that illustrates and interprets her charming haiku.”

You can find the book online here, on Amazon and in some local stores.

I’m also excited that Season 2 of Studio Space, a series on Humboldt County artists, will debut on KEET-TV and online on April 7 at 7:30 p.m.! One episode features artist Lori Goodman and me. I will let you know once I hear when it will air. The shows will be available to stream online for free for three weeks, then will be available only to PBS members.

Below is a sampling of my new and updated cards. You can browse the whole collection here, plus find 2022 calendars (now on sale for $8), art prints and a gallery of my work.

Thanks again for inspiring and motivating me to keep creating.

congratulations card with swimming salmon - collage card for grads etc. (430)

$5.00

funny birthday card of honeybees in a hive- watercolor art (424)

$5.00

funny rooster birthday card for kids and adults (432)

$5.00

sympathy card of bare trees and evening sky - watercolor with poem (427)

$5.00

Sunflowers for Ukraine

“shine on!” is 5x7, made with paper, acrylic paint and glue on illustration board. A card version is available here. © Annette Makino 2020

For the past week I’ve been consumed with the news of the war in Ukraine. In my past life in international development at Internews, I worked with Ukrainians committed to developing professional and independent media in their country. 

I have fond memories of a long-ago work trip to Kyiv: onion domes of Orthodox churches glittering golden in the sun. Children gazing at park statues honoring World War II soldiers. Vendors selling Ukrainian crafts and Soviet artifacts by the wide Dnieper River. The little shop where my Ukrainian colleague bought me a beautiful silk scarf I was admiring. It’s hard to imagine that whole world under attack right now. 

And yet it is truly inspiring to see how bravely Ukrainians of all stripes are responding to Putin's aggression. One viral video shows a woman offering sunflower seeds to a heavily armed Russian soldier, telling him, “Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.”

Kudos also to the courageous Russians who are resisting despite great personal risk. These include the 77-year old activist and survivor of the Siege of Leningrad, Yelena Osipova, who was detained by eight police officers for protesting in St. Petersburg. Even Russian children have been jailed for bringing flowers to the Ukrainian embassy.

It can be overwhelming to read about so much suffering, including the one million(!) Ukrainians so far who have been forced to leave their country. Here in my warm, comfortable house, I feel for all those who have fled their homes to spend days underground in subway stations. My heart also goes out to the young, ill-prepared Russian soldiers who were told they were going on training exercises, or that Ukrainians would welcome them with open arms.

I try to remind myself to just do what I can. I keep a quote by author Clarissa Pinkola Estés on my desktop: “Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.” 

refugee news
I rescue a spider
from the kitchen sink

Since the sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower, I’m joining other artists who are sharing sunflower art in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. To the Ukrainian people and to all who are resisting this brutal and senseless war, we see you and we salute you. Shine on!

(“refugee news” was first published in The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXIII, Number 4: December 2021)

Here’s hoping for brighter days ahead for Ukraine. (Photo: Annette Makino)

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Makino Studios News

New card designs: I’ve created several brand-new card designs and I’ve updated others with new words. Browse the whole collection, including Mother’s Day and graduation cards.

Sale on 2022 mini-calendars: My mini-calendars, featuring 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku, are now on sale for $9.99 (from $12.00).

Free shipping: I offer free first-class shipping on US retail orders of $35 or more. Use code FREESHIP35 at checkout.

A peek at my new lettering process

“deep river” is 11x14. This collage features three coho salmon swimming upstream, back to the place they were born. This piece is the January art for my 2022 calendar of art and haiku. As with all my collages, the papers start out white, and I then paint them with lightfast acrylic paint.

One fun detail is that the phrase "deep, deep river" appears on a scrap of a musical score. You can also see some prints I made from ferns, plus mango paper from Thailand, washi paper from Japan, newsprint, and even a toilet paper wrapper! I added the haiku using my Yuki font.

A new graduation card version reads, “congratulations—onward and upward!”

© Annette Makino 2021

There was a lot of interest in my last post, “How a collage is born.” So today I want to go behind the scenes again and share a bit about the process for my lettering. 

For my paintings and collages, I typically make one version of a piece that includes a haiku and another with the words for a greeting card. I normally leave the words off the original. 

I used to brush-paint each haiku or phrase using sumi ink, an ink stone and a bamboo brush. If you’ve ever tried painting or lettering using a brush and ink, you know it’s a delicate art with no room for error. So it would usually take me several tries to get right.

Then I would scan the words, edit out the white background, and digitally add the text to my art. This was a slow and painstaking process—with uneven results. 

Traditionally you make sumi ink by grinding an ink stick in an ink stone. Photo by Brandi Easter.

Here I am painting the letters for my custom font using sumi ink and a fine bamboo brush. I chose the best version of each letter for the font.

That changed last spring, when Arcata-based graphic designer and tech wiz Gabe Schneider at Sight Study created a custom font for me using my brush-painted letters. He used an extension for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop called FontSelf, which turns lettering into OpenType fonts. He fine-tuned the spaces between letters (kerning and tracking), and even figured out a clever way to make a bold version.

A detail of my custom Yuki font based on the letters I painted above.

There are still situations when I will hand-paint my words. Sometimes I want a special look, as with the big section headings for my book, Water and Stone. Or sometimes a customer buys an original painting and wants the haiku on it. But I’m always nervous that I will ruin the painting with a typo or smear—it’s been known to happen!

With my new brush font, I can quickly and easily type the words for my haiku and greeting cards. I’ve used it for slide show presentations of my art and poetry, and it also works beautifully for the 365 dates on my calendar. 

Is it “cheating”? Using my custom font may seem less Zen than painting each letter by hand in the traditional way, but it also creates less aggravation. And isn’t that actually more Zen? Plus, I get elegant, consistent results in a fraction of the time—giving me more time to write haiku and make art.

A quick Google search for “Asian brush font” returns 34 million results—but none of them are mine. I named my font Yuki, which means snow in Japanese. It also happens to be my middle name. I say let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

rice paper moon
pine trees brush
the inky sky

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Makino Studios News

My 2022 calendar uses my Yuki font for the dates—something I would never do by hand.

New card designs: I’ve created several brand-new card designs, including three birthday cards and one for graduation, and I’ve updated others with new words. Browse the whole card collection, including Valentine’s Day cards.

Sale on 2022 mini-calendars: My 2022 mini-calendars, featuring 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku, are now on sale for $9.99 (from $12.00). I like to think of these as a small rotating gallery of art.

My first book review: A new review of Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku in Haiku Canada Review says, “The images in Annette Makino’s collection are lovely, the prose is limpid, and the haiku seem effortlessly to verbalize how we are part of the world.” You can find my book here, on Amazon and in select Humboldt stores. It is 8x10, perfect bound, full color, and 124 pages. $24.99.

How a collage is born

Today I want to take you into my studio and share my process for creating a collage—specifically, the oak tree collage shown below. It’s part of my 2022 calendar of art and haiku, which is 15% off through Sunday.

The most time-intensive part of the process is actually painting the papers—this takes twice as long as all the rest. Here, I’m rolling hand-mixed acrylic paint onto a page from an old book, which is placed on a gel press plate. I always start with white paper and then paint it so that the colors won’t fade over time. On my table you can see clear plastic totes of papers that I’ve painted and embellished, one tote for each color.

I've always loved oak trees, and have drawn, painted, embroidered, quilted or batiked them since I was a kid. Here, I’ve torn the shapes of an oak tree with a boulder behind it, based loosely on some photos I took on a hike in the Kneeland hills of Humboldt County, CA. I prefer the organic look of torn rather than cut edges.

In this photo, you can see some shapes I have torn and laid down to represent leaves and bushes. The papers include some textural pieces made by applying paint to crinkled tin foil and rolling it onto painted deli paper. I also used an old map and some lacy paper from Japan that I painted, both of which suggest foliage.

Here, I’ve glued down the background and am tearing a tiny piece of foliage. I think of my collage process as “tearing things together.”

Almost there! Once I’ve laid out the pieces how I want them, I reverse the whole piece onto a separate sheet of paper. Now I can glue them down in the proper order, so the background pieces go down first. I apply archival glue (PVA) with an old paintbrush.

Ta-da! A few weeks after I made this piece, I lay in the hammock at my mother’s home in Mendocino County and brainstormed haiku that could go with it. The final piece reads:

staying balanced
on a spinning globe—
deep-rooted oak

Regarding the lettering, sometimes I paint each haiku individually using sumi ink and a bamboo brush. In this case, I used a custom font made from my brush-painted letters.

The red stamp in the corner is my name seal, also known as a chop or hanko, reading “Makino.”

I learned some of these collage techniques from a workshop with artist Donna Watson and books by Elizabeth St. Hilaire, and I am discovering new techniques all the time. Please let me know if you have any questions about my process!

"staying balanced" is 8x10, made of painted papers, glue and illustration board. The original is available for purchase. © Annette Makino 2020

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Makino Studios News

Sale on 2022 mini-calendars: My calendars of art and haiku are moving so fast that I ordered 200 more! They are now 15% off on the Makino Studios site, just till midnight this Sunday. Use code CAL15 at checkout. They are also sold at stores in Eureka, Arcata, McKinleyville and Trinidad, CA. The calendars feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku. Normally $12 each.

Water and Stone: My book of art and haiku makes a great gift! It includes 50 watercolor paintings with my original poems. Cost is $24.99. You can find it online here, on Amazon and in select local Humboldt stores. 

Cards: Holiday, birthday, sympathy or everyday… right now there are more than 60 Makino Studios card designs, including seven new or updated designs. Please note that due to increased costs, the price for a single card will rise on January 1, from $4.50 to $5.00. 

Made in Humboldt fair: The “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA runs through Friday, Dec. 24. This is the only fair where you can buy my calendars, books, prints and boxed notecards this season. 

Art prints at Blake’s Books: This bookstore in McKinleyville, CA currently has a selection of my framed and unframed art prints, ready for gifting. They are also among the local stores that carry my books, calendars, notecards and single cards.

Holiday shipping deadline: The US Postal Service advises that for first-class packages to arrive by Dec. 25, they should be shipped by this Friday, Dec. 17. 

Spread joy and beauty this season

In an era of mass-produced widgets, a unique and meaningful gift is more appreciated than ever. Here are some suggestions for special holiday presents from the Makino Studios shelves. And through this Sunday, take a holiday discount of 10% off anything in the shop* with code JOY10. The elves are standing by to pack your order!

2022 calendar of art and haiku—a mini-calendar with my original haiku and collages to lift the spirit all through the year. Includes info about the artist and about haiku and haiga. These are going fast!

sale

SALE! 2022 mini-calendar of art and haiku - Japanese-inspired collage

Sale Price:$6.00 Original Price:$12.00

Greeting cards—holiday, birthday, sympathy, everyday . . . choose from 60-plus designs! Heads up: due to increased printing costs, card prices will rise from $4.50 to $5 each on Jan. 1.

Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku—a book of my 50 favorite watercolor haiga (paintings with haiku), plus short personal tales. Softbound, 8x10, 124 pages, full color.

Book of art and haiku: Water and Stone

$25.00

Matted prints—a selection of small prints that are signed and double-matted to 8x10 size, packed with a flyer about the art and the artist. Can be customized with any card design.

redwood blessing - small signed and matted print

$18.00

11x14 prints—choose from 10 professionally printed, fade-resistant designs on heavy stock. Each 11x14 print is stamped with a red name seal and signed by the artist. Supplies very limited.

Original art—paintings in Japanese watercolors and sumi ink, or collages of hand-painted papers, found papers and natural objects, some with haiku. Browse the gallery for possibilities. Starting at $100.

Gift card—can’t decide what to get them? A Makino Studios digital gift card lets them choose exactly what they want, and never expires.

Makino Studios gift card

from $25.00

Looking for boxed notecard sets? These have almost completely sold out, though some local Humboldt stores still have a few designs, especially the Made in Humboldt fair at Pierson’s, which runs through Dec. 24. Due to increased printing costs, these will probably be the last of the Makino Studios notecard sets.

Holiday shipping deadline: The US Postal Service advises that for first-class packages to arrive by Dec. 25, they should be shipped by Dec. 17. 

Happy holidays to you and yours!

warmly, Annette

*The JOY10 10% off holiday discount applies to US retail orders of items in the Makino Studios online shop. No order minimum. Expires Sunday, Dec. 12 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. One code per order.

The gift of gathering

“sideways rain” is 8x10, made of paper, acrylic paint, and adhesive on paper. © Annette Makino 2020.

As a strong introvert, I keep having to re-learn a truth that is screamingly obvious to any extrovert: humans need community to thrive. Although writing haiku and making art are usually solitary activities, I still need to connect with other like-minded souls for ideas, support and a sense of greater purpose.

Late last month I attended the annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway in Washington State. I’ve joined (and presented at) several haiku conferences via Zoom during the pandemic. But this was the first one that I’ve attended in person, fortified by my Covid booster shot and reassured by the required proof of vaccination and masks.

one red leaf
just inside the door
haiku welcome

It was deeply nourishing to spend three days talking, writing and breathing haiku with other members of this unique tribe. I knew some people from previous Seabeck gatherings, others only as bylines in haiku journals. Some participants were newbies and others were longtime leaders in the field, but all were true fans of the elusive art of haiku. 

It was especially affirming to give a presentation on my haiga (art combined with haiku) to a warm and appreciative crowd. A section on my senryu (haiku’s funnier cousin) elicited waves of laughter. I thought, “These people get me!”

Margaret Chula reads at the Cathedral in the Woods at the Seabeck Conference Center in Washington State in October 2021.

At Seabeck, we connected over meals and in a cedar grove where poets gave readings. On a trail through the woods to an overgrown cemetery and on a fun “bouncing bridge” on the conference grounds. In dozens of sessions and conversations, I found inspiration and community. The theme of this year’s conference? “Togetherness.”

the bouncing bridge
shakes loose our giggles
sun through cedars

Especially with people gathering for Thanksgiving this week, I am reminded that we all need community to make our lives rich and meaningful—even us introverts. I’m grateful beyond measure for all of it. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

sideways rain
a stranger’s umbrella 
brushes mine

More about the special magic of Seabeck.

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Makino Studios News

Thanksgiving special: Free shipping all week, no minimum orders! Use code THANKS21 at checkout for free first-class shipping on any order within the US. Offer runs through midnight this Sunday, Nov. 28.

Top 10 reasons to shop local for the holidays: On Nov. 16, the Eureka Times-Standard published a column I wrote for their Business Sense series. The article also shares ideas for meaningful holiday gifts, especially from local artists and craftspeople. 

Holiday shipping deadline: The US Postal Service advises that for first-class packages to arrive by Dec. 25, they should be shipped by Dec. 17. 

2022 mini-calendar: My calendars of art and haiku are going like hotcakes! They are available on this site and at select stores in Humboldt County, California. They feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku. $12 each. 

Water and Stone: My book of art and haiku, Water and Stone, makes a lovely gift! It includes 50 watercolor paintings with my original poems. Cost is $24.99. You can find it online here, on Amazon and in select local Humboldt stores. 

Made in Humboldt fair: The “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA runs through Friday, Dec. 24. This will be the only fair where you can buy my calendars, books, prints and boxed notecards this season. 

Art prints at Blake’s Books: This sweet bookstore in McKinleyville currently has a selection of my framed and unframed art prints, ready for gifting! They also carry my calendars, notecard sets and single cards.

Joy, art and healing

“first rain” is 11 x 14, made of paper, acrylic paint, and adhesive on paper. It appears in my 2022 calendar. © Annette Makino 2021.

It’s always a bit awkward having an event online. It’s not just that someone invariably forgets to mute; it’s also just plain weird to have a conversation with people you can only see in their little Zoom boxes.

flossing only
my front teeth
Zoom meeting

But this deep into the pandemic, Zooming has become more routine—and it does allow for some interesting opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise have.

A couple of weeks ago, I was part of an online panel with four other artists and writers on the theme of joy, art and healing. The rich and wide-ranging conversation centered on the experience of being an artist in this particular time.

Right now our world is dealing with climate change, a pandemic, and assaults on democracy, to name just a few threats. We explored whether it’s frivolous or self-indulgent to spend time making art when our world is so broken. 

Is it the highest and best use of our time to hole up in our studios? Should we instead devote ourselves to political organizing or marching in the streets?

A couple of the panelists shared ways they have harnessed their art for good causes. For instance, letterpress artist Jenn Graves donated sales of a print reading “love is a verb” to support young people as they age out of foster care.

More broadly, we discussed how making art is one way of mending the world. As artist Lisa Occhipinti put it, “Art heals us and enables us to give joy.” 

Author Lori Snyder said, “At its best, art is a bridge to all of our humanity.” She noted how creations that feel unique to us can have universal meaning for other people. 

I shared that my younger self thought that the best way to create social change was to work directly on issues, preferably on a global scale. But I’ve since come to believe that we artists can create more profound change at an individual level, when we’re in our truth and sharing our authentic selves. 

I keep this quote by Clarissa Pinkola Estés on my computer desktop: “Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.”

I called both of my senators yesterday morning and I regularly donate to political and environmental groups. But I believe the part of the world I can best mend is the part I can touch with my art. 

Someday I hope to meet my fellow panelists out of their Zoom boxes, in 3-D! In the mean time, I’m grateful to them for affirming that, despite my occasional bouts of guilt and doubt, art can be a path to joy and healing for both the artist and the viewer. 

art studio
a full day’s work
under my nails

P.S. This panel was part of “Joy, Art & Healing,” a series of seven conversation organized by Lori Snyder and the Writers Happiness Movement in celebration of Lori’s new book, The Circus at the End of the Sea. You can watch the whole discussion here.

An earlier version of “first rain” was first published in Windfall: 2013 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology

“flossing only” was first published in Paper Mountains: 2020 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology

“art studio” was first published in The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXII, Number 2, June 2021

Single cards, notecard sets, signed prints, calendars and books are all available on this site.

Makino Studios News

New cards: I’ve created eight new and updated cards for birthdays, sympathy, support and every day! I also offer notecards sets for the holidays or every day.

2022 mini-calendar: My new calendars of art and haiku are available on this site and at select stores in Humboldt County, California. They feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku, which you can see at the top of my collage gallery. At $12 each, these make great holiday gifts. 

Water and Stone: My book of art and haiku, Water and Stone, makes a lovely present! It includes 50 watercolor paintings with my original poems, plus 15 haibun (short prose pieces combined with haiku). Cost is $24.99. You can find it online here, on Amazon and in select local Humboldt stores. 

Made in Humboldt fair: You’ll be able to find my calendars, prints and boxed notecards at the “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA from Tuesday, Nov. 9 through Friday, Dec. 24. This will be the only fair where you can find my work this season. 

Seabeck Haiku Getaway: I will be presenting a slide show of my art and haiku (haiga) plus a hands-on haiga workshop at the Seabeck Haiku Getaway taking place in Seabeck, WA Oct. 27-31. (Haiku poets, there are still a few spots left!)

Traveling: In related news, I will be traveling and unable to fill orders Oct. 26-Nov. 4, so please get any Makino Studios orders in by Monday.